1S36.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



197 



and the odor of the chlorine was as strong as at 

 first. Next moriiinir 'hpv were Ibiind withered, 

 the smell of chlorine hail disappeared, and was re- 

 placed hy a very disaixreeahle acid odor. The 

 same residt was obtained on repealing the experi- 

 ment several limes. 



Nitric acid withered the plants dnring tlie nicrht, 

 but in the day time merely rendered some of'them 

 brown colored. 



Sulphuretted hydrogen produced no aheration 

 when liffht was present, but destroyed them in 

 the night, by the absor|)tion of the gas. 



Muriatic acid gas acted in a similar manner. 



From tlie New England Farmer. 

 TO KBEP BUGS FROM VINES 



A correspondent of the Maine Farmer says, I 

 last year planted my cucumbers, &c. near where 

 grew some tansy at one corner — soon after up, the 

 "striped jackets"' attacked them, except those in 

 the immediate vicinity of the tansy. Observing 

 this, I put around each hill some sprigs of tansy, 

 which caused the bugs to leave them, and by a 

 few applications, so as to keep it somewhat green, 

 were kept off, as the scent is strong and I believe 

 not agreeable to them. 



C. D. 



East TVinthrop, Mmj, 1836. 



It is said that branches of elder laid on each hill 

 will keep bugs from vines. 



DEFECTS IIV THE EXISTIJVG LAW AND PRAC- 

 TICE IN REGARD TO THE ISSUING OF PA- 

 TENTS. 



Extract from the Report of the Committee to Congress. 

 [The following extract embraces all the material part 

 of the recent report of the Committee of Congress 

 "appointed to take into consideration the state and 

 condition of the Patent Office, and the laws relating to 

 the issuing of Patents for new and useful inventions 

 and discoveries." The draft of a bill accompanies the 

 report, which is designed to remove the numerous ex- 

 isting defects of the system. This extract will be 

 enough to show that the present system, instead of 

 serving its intended purpose of rewarding inventive 

 talent, and of sending abroad for general use, real and 

 valuable inventions, serves rather to reward impostors 

 and violators of patent rights, and to defraud both in- 

 ventors and the public, by aiding and encouraging 

 falsehood and delusion. — Ed. Far. Reg] 



The first act of Congress on the subject was 

 passed in 1790. It authorized the Secretary of 

 State, Secretary of War and the Attorney Gen- 

 eral, or any two of them, on application, to grant 

 patents for such new inventions and discoveries as 

 they should deem " sufficiently useful and impor 

 taut.''' Under that act the board so constituted 

 exercized the power of refusing patents lor want 

 of novelty in the invention or of sufficient utility 

 and importance.— This act extended the same 

 privilege to aliens as to citizens. In 1793, it was 

 repealed, and another act passed, authorizino- pa- 

 tents to citizens ol the United Slates only to be 

 granted by the Secretary of State, subject to the 



revision of the Attorney General. In 1800, the 

 privilege to takeout patents was extended to aliens 

 who have resided two years in this rountrv, and 

 made oath of llieir intention ol' becoming citizens 

 of ihe United Slates. 



Tlie act of 1793, which is still in force, gives, 

 according to the practical construction it has receiv- 

 ed, no power to the Secretary to refuse a patent 

 for want of either novelty or usefulness. The on- 

 ly inquiry is whether the terms and Ibrms prescri- 

 bed are comjdied with. The granting of patents, 

 theretore, is but a ministerial duty. Every one 

 who makes application is entitled to receive a pa- 

 tent by j>aying the duty re(iuired, and making his 

 application and specification in conlbrmity with 

 the law. The necessary consequence is, that pa- 

 tents have, under the act of 1793, been daily grant- 

 ed, without regard to the question of novelty, or- 

 even utility in the ordinary sense; for it has been 

 settled that the term useful, as used in this statute, 

 is only in contradisiinction to hurtful, injurious, or 

 pernicious. This construction (that no right is 

 conferred to refuse a patent ) has been given to 

 the law by the Department charged with the du- 

 ty of granting patents, not so much probably Irom 

 any necessary and unavoidable import of Ihe 

 terms of it, as from a disinclination to exercise a 

 power of so much importance, in cases where it is 

 not clearly and distinctly jrranted. And it may be 

 reasonably doubted whether it was the intention 

 of Congress to confer such a power on the Secre- 

 tary of State alone, since no provision is made 

 for an appeal or other remedy lor an incorrect de- 

 cision adverse to the applicant. Besides, any per- 

 son occiipyinnr that station might bo supposed as 

 little qualified by an acquaintance with the appro- 

 priate branches of science or of the arts, to decide 

 such questions, a* any other officer o( the Govern- 

 ment. And were he to undertake the task of 

 such an examination as would be necessary to a 

 decision in each case, he would have little lime 

 for other official duties. 



Under the act referred to, the Department of 

 State has been going on for more than Ibrty years, 

 issuing patents on every application, without any 

 examination into the merit or novelty of the inven- 

 tion. And the evils which necessarily result from 

 the law as it now exists, must continue to increase 

 and multiply daily, till Congress shall put a stop 

 to them. Some of them are as follows: 



1. A considerable portion of all the patents 

 granted are worthless and void, as conflicting with, 

 and infringing upon one another, or upon public 

 riijhts not subject to patent privileges; arising ei- 

 ther from a want of due attention to the specifica- 

 tions of claim, or from the ignorance of the paten- 

 tees of the state of the arts and manufiictures, and 

 of the inventions made in other countries, or even 

 in our own. 



2. The country becomes flooded with patent 

 monopolies, embarrassing to bona fide patentees, 

 whose rights are thus invaded on all sides; and not 

 less embarrassing to the community generally, in 

 the use of even the most common machinery and 

 long-known improvements in the arts and com- 

 mon manufiictures of the country. 



3. Out of tliis interlerence and collision of pa- 

 tents and privileges, a great number ot lawsuits 

 arise, which are daily increasing in an alarming 

 degree, onerous to the courts, ruinous to the par- 

 ties; and injurious to society. 



